Woman who had most of her face torn off by crazed chimp speaks for first time

A woman who suffered horrific injuries after being mauled by a crazed chimpanzee has spoken for the first time about her ordeal.

Charla Nash, who had most of her face torn off during the frenzied attack, has also allowed herself to be photographed for the first time since the attack eight months ago.

She said she was glad she had no memory of the attack or she believes she would have suffered from terrible 'nightmares'.

Nash, who has a daughter, Briana, 17, has no eyes, mouth, eyelids and nose.

She also lost all the fingers on both hands as they were chewed off.

Nash is considering undergoing a full face transplant as she comes to terms with the life changing attack.

Speaking
for the first time about the attack by a friend's 200lb chimp, Nash said: 'I don't want to remember, because I couldn't imagine what it was
like.

'I want to get healthy. I don't want to wake up with nightmares.

'I don't ask a whole lot about my injuries and I know that I have my forehead.'

Nash broke her silence for an interview on The Oprah Winfrey in the U.S. yesterday.

Before she revealed her disfigured features on television, Winfrey warned the audience that what they would see was 'extremely, extremely shocking'.

The chat show host said she had never seen anyone with such horrific injuries, including burns victims.

She said: 'It is very shocking. You will see the destruction and devastation caused.'

This is the astonishing moment Charla bravely shows her face to Oprah Winfrey and the world after it was ripped off by a chimp

Before: Charla smiles as she poses with Travis in a picture taken when the chimpanzee was much younger and smaller

Nash told Winfrey that she had agreed to let her face be shown to the world for the first time after being told there was a 'bounty' on her picture from U.S. supermarket tabloids.

A guard has been posted outside her hospital room for the last eight months and mobile phones and cameras banned.

Nash was left near dead when her close friend's house-trained ape, Travis, brutally mauled her after escaping from the home in which he had been raised as a pet from infancy.

Travis' owner, Sandy Herold, used a butcher's knife to stab the 14-year-old chimp, who was suffering from Lyme disease and had consumed the drug Xanax, in a desperate bid to save her friend.

The rampage was only ended at the Stamford, Connecticut, home when police shot the animal dead.

On emergency calls of the incident Herold could be heard screaming: 'The chimp killed my friend'.

The 911 dispatcher later asks: 'Who's killing your friend?'

'My chimpanzee!,' she cries.

'He ripped her apart! Shoot him, shoot him!'

Paramedics at the scene said it looked as if Nash's hands had been through a meat grinder as they picked up her chewed-off fingers from the floor.

Nash said when she woke up in hospital after the attack she couldn't understand what had happened to her.

Travis, pictured in his playroom in 2003, was Sandra Herold's beloved pet

But she realised the full extent of her injuries when a doctor told her she had lost both her eyes.

Speaking to Winfrey, Nash said: 'I do remember I kept saying that, "Well, one of these days I'm going to see." And then the doctors said, "No, you're never going to see again," and I'm like: "Well, I don't know. They don't know what they're talking about".

'But the eye doctor came in a couple weeks ago and said that it's a shame they had to remove my eyes, and that's when I really knew.'

Nash said she wore a veil to hide her hideously disfigured face so as not to scare people.

'I wear it so I don't scare people. Sometimes other people might insult you, so I figure maybe it's easier if I just walk around covered up.'

Since the attack Nash has been recovering at the Cleveland Hospital in Ohio where America's first full face transplant was carried out.

Friends say Nash, who was devastated after her eyes were removed due to infection following the injuries, is considering such a transplant.

But Nash is not a candidate for a hand transplant because she has lost her eyesight.

'I'm hoping somewhere along the line I'll be evaluated and that maybe when I get a face transplant,' she said. 'The hand transplant will be done with it because they have to be done at the same time from the same donor.'

Nash said her biggest regret has not being able to spend more time with her daughter Briana.

She said she looked forward to the teenager's visits.

'We lay next to each other and we hold each other and we talk about things - what she does at school or with her friends.'

And she insists she is not worried about what people think of her looks.

'I'm the one who has to like this,' she said. 'Not them. So it doesn't matter what they say.'

Her family are suing the owner of the chimp, Sandra Herold, for over $28million.

Herold did not take part in the programme, but her lawyer issued a statement which said: 'All of Sandy's hopes and prayers are with Charla and her daughter in this challenging time. Sandy has always tried to help Charla and wished her the best.

'When Charla lost her job, it was Sandy who provided her with employment and a place to live. Sandy hopes and prays for a full and speedy recovery.'

Oprah Winfrey's producers spent a day at the Ohio clinic filming Nash.